posted at 4:59 pm on May 2, 2011 by Allahpundit

Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden’s most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed’s successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania.

One U.S. official, speaking to the LA Times, noted drily, “That took years and these guys don’t give it up all willingly.” So much for the canard that enhanced interrogation never, under any circumstances, yields useful information. I’m trying to get the timeline straight, though. Apparently, sometime between 2002 and 2007, KSM and/or al-Libi revealed the courier’s pseudonym to the CIA while at a secret prison; then, four years ago, the CIA finally figured out the courier’s real name, which was the first big break in tracking him to Bin Laden’s door. The NYT, however, says that the CIA got the courier’s pseudonym from detainees at Gitmo. Maybe they corroborated the info gleaned from KSM and al-Libi at the black sites, or vice versa? Bear in mind too that al-Libi wasn’t one of the three high-value detainees who were waterboarded. He coughed up the courier’s name after some sort of lesser enhanced interrogation, and not until we have a precise timeline on KSM will we know exactly when in the process he gave them the name. Dick Cheney phoned into Fox this afternoon to talk about the role of EIT in this and said, while he assumes that it helped, he’ll have to wait for more details to know for sure. Watch below via Fox News Insider.

Since we’re on the subject of operational details, be sure to read Marc Ambinder’s inside report on how elite special forces units have become increasingly sophisticated — and consequently more lethal — intelligence-gatherers. Petraeus and McChrystal famously perfected rapid military/intel integration in Iraq; the Bin Laden killing last night is a spectacular demonstration of how good we’ve gotten.

The way JSOC solved this problem remains a carefully guarded secret, but people familiar with the unit suggest that McChrystal and Flynn introduced hardened commandos to basic criminal forensic techniques and then used highly advanced and still-classified technology to transform bits of information into actionable intelligence. One way they did this was to create forward-deployed fusion cells, where JSOC units were paired with intelligence analysts from the NSA and the NGA. Such analysis helped the CIA to establish, with a high degree of probability, that Osama bin Laden and his family were hiding in that particular compound.

These technicians could “exploit and analyze” data obtained from the battlefield instantly, using their access to the government’s various biometric, facial-recognition, and voice-print databases. These cells also used highly advanced surveillance technology and computer-based pattern analysis to layer predictive models of insurgent behavior onto real-time observations.

The military has begun to incorporate these techniques across the services.

Another scoop from the same piece: “Several dozen JSOC operatives have died in Pakistan over the past several years.” Apparently, their deaths are typically reported as “training accidents” in eastern Afghanistan. Maybe that’s why Obama felt confident in ordering a daring special ops mission deep inside the country — judging by the death toll of U.S. troops there, daring missions are nothing new. Even so, it took balls to make a call like that given the risks of a Mogadishu/Desert One disaster and the availability of an effective-yet-sloppier bombing run on the compound. Obama reportedly considered the latter before ruling it out, knowing that only boots on the ground could limit civilian casualties and come back with proof that we got our man.. That was the bold move, and the smart one.

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Please don’t try to pretend that you were pro-EIT during the Dubya years.

Oh, I definitely wasn’t, and I’m definitely not now. Although a big part of my problem with it is the the sheer Orwellian-ness of calling it “EIT.” If you support torture, man up and call it “torture.” I thought you guys were supposed to be against “PC speech.”

Oh, I definitely wasn’t, and I’m definitely not now. Although a big part of my problem with it is the the sheer Orwellian-ness of calling it “EIT.” If you support torture, man up and call it “torture.” I thought you guys were supposed to be against “PC speech.”

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:18 PM

You’re the one torturing the English language into blathering babble trying to spin your way out of admitting that “torture” worked.

Nice try. Maybe you can get yourself a “overcharge reset button” from our sterling State Dept.

Oh, I definitely wasn’t, and I’m definitely not now. Although a big part of my problem with it is the the sheer Orwellian-ness of calling it “EIT.” If you support torture, man up and call it “torture.” I thought you guys were supposed to be against “PC speech.”

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:18 PM

You mean like calling Obamacare the PPACA?

You’re from the party of sanitized speech. Embrace it. Love it. Learn to love the EIT.

Here, here, were it not for your type, the idiotic liberal lawyers, and the interminable trials, which could have ended in setting him free, I’d have preferred to catch him alive, then hand him over to me.

You ain’t seen slow torture in your wildest imagination. I have a hard time killing any living thing, but this terrorist would have had to endure to the point of insanity, on my terms.

You can continue your insane global PC. You’d be one of the first victims in his hands. I’d save you from him, no doubt. In doing so, you’d have to wet your panties in fear first, just so you’d learn an eternal lesson, the hard way.

That’s rich, coming from you. Obama succeeds where Bush failed and you use some sort of convoluted baseball analogy to try to spin things the other way.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:08 PM

How did Bush fail, you intellectually dishonest partisan hack?

You think that NOTHING gathered and developed during the 8 years that Bush was President played a part in locating Bin Laden today? You think it was all Obama in under 2 years of work? Ignore that EIT worked on KSM, ignore that rapid intelligence gathering/integration perfected in the Iraq war played a part, ignore that the first tips about Obama’s courier seem to have been given years ago, before Obama was even a candidate – go ahead and ignore it all and continue living in your pathetic fantasy world where our troops are in the Middle East to slaughter civilians and take their oil, the best way to get out of debt is to spend more money, Obama is God and you are anything more than a coffee fetching paralegal struggling through night school.

crr6 will never stop being hypocritical. It’s in her blood; it’s what liberals do and who they are. They’re like pretzels, twisting and turning everything to suit their own purposes.

If my mind functioned in the same way as her’s, I would have taken the gas pipe by now.

GrannyDee on May 2, 2011 at 6:06 PM

Yes, but look at what they’ve become: “Yay! My guy assassinated someone inside a Muslim country! Shot him right through the freakin’ skull! Didn’t even tell that country’s leaders what was going on! They killed a woman there, too! Yay!”

They are so far off their own reservation they’ll never find their way back. In the days and weeks ahead, they’ll start trying to walk all of this jubilance back, but it’ll be impossible. Their entire ideology is under the bus to save Obama’s election chances. One could not find a better example of winning the battle while losing the war. What have they got left to talk about on national security and foreign policy except to say “Yeah, ummmm, Bush was right”?

It is NOT torture. Ripping out someone’s finger nails and making thing that you will in fact rip out their finger nails is not torture as far as I am concerned. That is why he call it EIT, because we do not associate it with torture.

Are you willing to say this won’t come back to bite you? Missed you on the Kloppy recount threads after your prediction there of a clear win for Klopp. Prosser is more than 7300 votes, and climbing, since the recount started.

That’s rich, coming from you. Obama succeeds where Bush failed and you use some sort of convoluted baseball analogy to try to spin things the other way.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:08 PM

If Bush had killed Bin Laden, retrieved his body, and given him a Burial at sea within 24 hours, and refused to release photographic proof of his death, and crossed into another country without permission, to assassinate someone…..

You and the media would be crying bloody murder. The sad part is you know it, and shamelessly ignore that fact.

That’s rich, coming from you. Obama succeeds where Bush failed and you use some sort of convoluted baseball analogy to try to spin things the other way.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:08 PM

..exactly what did Obama put into place that was not there before?

Priceless! Go read the reports of how/where/what on this mission and note that the threads of the intel began in and around 2006 if not soon after 9/11. That scabby old bitch Pelosi and all of your liberal ilk kept crying the blues about EIT and those camel jockeys being forced to suck on wet wash cloths to extract info.

Before that, your bud, The Cohiba-tator, lobs a couple of cruise missiles at goat herder tents and declares the problem solved despite an attempt at the WTC in 93 and some towel heads blowing a hole in the side of a Naval vessel.

It is NOT torture. Ripping out someone’s finger nails and making thing that you will in fact rip out their finger nails is not torture as far as I am concerned. That is why he call it EIT, because we do not associate it with torture.

Daemonocracy on May 2, 2011 at 6:28 PM

Ugh, let me re-write.

Ripping out someone’s finger nails as opposed to making them think you will rip out their finger nails are not the same. I don’t see it as the same. One is meant to cause pain, the other meant to scare the crap out of the bastard. Water Boarding will not kill or permanently damage you, it is not torture.

Although a big part of my problem with it is the the sheer Orwellian-ness of calling it “EIT.” If you support torture, man up and call it “torture.” I thought you guys were supposed to be against “PC speech.”

That’s rich, coming from you. Obama succeeds where Bush failed and you use some sort of convoluted baseball analogy to try to spin things the other way.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:08 PM

Did you actually read AP’s post above? You’re saying Bush failed even though much of the crucial intelligence to get Bin Laden was gathered years in advance. Had that not happened, Obama would have not been able to make the decision he did. I give both presidents credit for this; apparently you are uncapable of doing so.

Ripping out someone’s finger nails as opposed to making them think you will rip out their finger nails are not the same. I don’t see it as the same.

Er, well sure.

One is meant to cause pain, the other meant to scare the crap out of the bastard.

Right.

Water Boarding will not kill or permanently damage you, it is not torture.

Daemonocracy on May 2, 2011 at 6:31 PM

The thing is, waterboard is drowning. They don’t make you think they’ll drown you, they actually start to drown you. The only difference between waterboarding and drowning is, when they stop. If they didn’t stop, of course, it wouldn’t be torture. It’d be murder.

Oh, I definitely wasn’t, and I’m definitely not now. Although a big part of my problem with it is the the sheer Orwellian-ness of calling it “EIT.” If you support torture, man up and call it “torture.” I thought you guys were supposed to be against “PC speech.”

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:18 PM

For those of us who do not believe making someone stand up for long periods of time or pouring water over his head fits the definition of torture, we need another descriptor. EIT works quite well. But you are not intellectually honest enough to understand the distinction.

The thing is, waterboard is drowning. They don’t make you think they’ll drown you, they actually start to drown you. The only difference between waterboarding and drowning is, when they stop. If they didn’t stop, of course, it wouldn’t be torture. It’d be murder.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:44 PM

Yes, and putting a caterpillar on a terrorists leg in a dark and confined space, but telling him in a scorpion is torcher as welll, right?

Let me tell you what the thing is, it works and you are celebrating it’s use the more you lavish praise on Obama for using the intelligence gathered through these methods to kill Bin Laden. You support torture, congratulations.

The thing is, waterboard is drowning. They don’t make you think they’ll drown you, they actually start to drown you. The only difference between waterboarding and drowning is, when they stop. If they didn’t stop, of course, it wouldn’t be torture. It’d be murder.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:44 PM

Consider that under the GC these are illegal enemy combatants. Those fall under the ‘Spies and Saboteurs’ category.

I have always preferred the concept of military tribunal for those that are captured that we want something from.

It has a summary ending.

Even if it is ‘drowning’, and from what I’ve read this involves plastic and water as part of the process, but even if it is ‘drowning’ is that worse than a summary execution? I prefer the laws of war be applied to those we fight and capture. Sucks that terrorists have renounced all civilized ways and have reverted back to the Law of Nature, isn’t it? Red of tooth and claw? Seeing oneself as above any law and accountable to no one. You know, killing wantonly so as to get your own Private ends via waging war on your own?

That is what they deserve: a proper identification of their status and then the summary sentence which goes with it.

I’ll tip one tonight to Obama for following the Bush doctrine, Gitmo, drone strikes, hard nose military action. I’ll tip another to the Navy Special Operators who carried out Obama’s order. Whatever you think about Obama, good or bad, he will be remembered as the man who took out Bin Laden and for that he deserves all the credit that as Commander in Chief, he deserves.

Philly on May 2, 2011 at 5:04 PM
..we sure as hell do! It is so-o-o-o-o gratifying that Dick Cheney maintained his health to see this day! God bless him, W., him, and Rummy. And God bless you Philly!

The War Planner on May 2, 2011 at 5:59 PM

Thanks, War Planner. I will take all the blessings I can get. I have to fill up my gas tank soon, so I will need it. Obama’s dead-cat bounce will be over by this weekend after which most of the country’s drivers will gas up and wake up to reality.

LOL. Sounds like O’bama was running for something when he made that speech.

Of course, you cherry-pick what he actually did. No mention of the EO he signed to close GITMO almost as soon as he’d been sworn into office, no mention of his wanting to go back to the Clinton method of treating Terrorism as a law enforcement problem, etc.

And I am hard pressed to find a conservative who does not credit him for making the call he did. The issue here is finding a lib crediting the hard work, and interrogations, done by during the Bush administration.

And I am hard pressed to find a conservative who does not credit him for making the call he did. The issue here is finding a lib crediting the hard work, and interrogations, done by during the Bush administration.

Daemonocracy on May 2, 2011 at 7:06 PM

Yup. Obama absolutely made the right call. Also knew that alerting the Pakis in advance would have compromised the entire mission, so even though he pays lip service to the ‘international community,’ when it really counted, he went to bat for unilateral action.

If anything Clinton pitched the first couple innings, passed on several chances to take OBL out, and then let bin Laden attack us (OBL himself said the attacks were supposed to happen before he left office). Then Bush came in and we had no new attacks on US soil in 7 years, and then Obama followed Bush’s policies and mopped up.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 5:56 PM

Fixed.

Your knowledge about baseball is as Half Vast as your knowledge of economics.

LOL. Sounds like O’bama was running for something when he made that speech.

Of course, you cherry-pick what he actually did. No mention of the EO he signed to close GITMO almost as soon as he’d been sworn into office, no mention of his wanting to go back to the Clinton method of treating Terrorism as a law enforcement problem, etc.

Del Dolemonte on May 2, 2011 at 7:06 PM

No mention of telling the enemies the date of retreat, then changing his puerile mind.

The thing is, waterboard is drowning. They don’t make you think they’ll drown you, they actually start to drown you. The only difference between waterboarding and drowning is, when they stop. If they didn’t stop, of course, it wouldn’t be torture. It’d be murder.
crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:44 PM

shuddup already

why don’t you bore a hole in yourself and let the sap run out

torture works even if it’s our nice torture where unfortunately we aren’t parting the subsimian out

your highmindedness wants to believe that you can accomplish hard tasks while keeping your hands clean

welcome to the real world obammy and crr6

the pez has some set after all the bs he spewed , while the left made the fight so much harder with there irrational rants, bammy ends up using the same tools they decried

and turnips like crr6 don’t even realise the intellectual contridictions that they wear with pride

moron of the first degree who may be able to handle moving violations for a living

The thing is, waterboard is drowning. They don’t make you think they’ll drown you, they actually start to drown you. The only difference between waterboarding and drowning is, when they stop. If they didn’t stop, of course, it wouldn’t be torture. It’d be murder.

crr6 on May 2, 2011 at 6:44 PM

But according to your twisted thinking, torturing an unborn baby (who has committed no crime against humanity) in the womb before murdering it is perfectly acceptable, crr6?

The thing is, waterboard is drowning. They don’t make you think they’ll drown you, they actually start to drown you. The only difference between waterboarding and drowning is, when they stop. If they didn’t stop, of course, it wouldn’t be torture. It’d be murder.

You just knew that when she found out that (shock) Bush interrogation and intel extraction policies (and secret prisons) gave Obama the intel he needed to lead the US to Bin Laden’s door that she’d be furiously spinning her wheels to deny, deny, deny it.

But she can’t.

This is an inconvenient truth to the “Obama did it all himself without help from that stupid BOOSH” narrative that his sycophants have been trying like hell today to make stick.

Are you willing to say this won’t come back to bite you? Missed you on the Kloppy recount threads after your prediction there of a clear win for Klopp. Prosser is more than 7300 votes, and climbing, since the recount started.

Bite.

65droptop on May 2, 2011 at 6:29 PM

Think about it: what are the odds that crr6 wasn’t aware of the misreported votes from Waukesha County when she made the statement you are referring to? Yes, she’s stupid, but she’s not that stupid.

Don’t let her yank your chain – she’s an intellectually dishonest liar (you should see her blatantly contradictory claims about 0bamessiah’s LFBC) and she’s a completely graceless person (giving 0bamessiah most, if not all, of the credit for OBL’s death while deriding GWB’s role is the height of chutzpah) unworthy of your attention, like every other committed Leftie is.

The only role she should be allowed to play at HA is that of a punching bag, or of a scratching post. She’s useless, or worse, otherwise.

“Mohammed did not reveal the names while being subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, former officials said. He identified them many months later under standard interrogation, they said, leaving it once again up for debate as to whether the harsh technique was a valuable tool or an unnecessarily violent tactic”
source “Huffpost”

You just knew that when she found out that (shock) Bush interrogation and intel extraction policies (and secret prisons) gave Obama the intel he needed to lead the US to Bin Laden’s door that she’d be furiously spinning her wheels to deny, deny, deny it.

But she can’t.

This is an inconvenient truth to the “Obama did it all himself without help from that stupid BOOSH” narrative that his sycophants have been trying like hell today to make stick.

Ain’t working. Facts are stubborn things.

Good Lt on May 2, 2011 at 9:23 PM

That’s funny, cause today it came out that the intel was released w/o waterboarding.

Ok, so we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq (where we captured this guy) we shouldn’t keep these foreign “secret jails” where we held some of them, we shouldn’t use EIT, how we got the name, and we shouldn’t use warrantless wiretapping (how we narrowed down the location).

Oh, and we also shouldn’t have “lawless assassination squads” i.e. Team 6 who actually got him.

Does that cover your general viewpoint crr6? You only oppose every single step along the way to get here, we shouldn’t have done any (much less all) of these steps, and
it’s horrible that Obama followed Bush’s lead on each and every one of these things to get the job done.

But thank goodness for Obama’s leadership in opposing every one of these, then keeping all of them even though they were wrong, unamerican, evil, and illegal.

Because leadership is calling workable plans evil, opposing them, then using them yourself should you gain power, and claiming credit when they work.

Should we admit the opposition to every one of these was crass partisan politics, or did the Democrats keep every one of these unamerican evil policies for some other reason?